Snohomish County entertainment
Opera: Love is in the aria

By Diane Wright
Times Snohomish County Bureau

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Most read articles Most e-mailed articles

Opera, essentially a romantic art form, has inspired some of the greatest love arias of all time.

When up-and-coming singers with the Seattle Opera perform Saturday night at the Everett Theatre, the audience will meet characters who are celebrating — and struggling with — love.

The Seattle Opera's Young Artists Program picks 10 singers out of a national field of 600 applicants. For 20 weeks, the singers study, rehearse and perform across the state.

On Saturday, they'll sing arias, duets and ensemble numbers from opera masterpieces in a concert dedicated to John Schack, a philanthropist who died this year. Schack and his wife, Idamae, helped pay for the theater's restoration.

What the singers perform fits with how their voices are developing.

"There's a lot of Mozart, and Strauss; they're doing pieces from 'The Magic Flute' and 'The Marriage of Figaro,' " said Vanessa Miller, an associate director of education for Seattle Opera.

Seattle Opera Young Artists Opera singers Robyn Driedger-Klassen, Andrew Garland, Carolyn Kahl, Jeremy Alan Kelly and Maureen McKay perform with the Everett Symphony Chamber Orchestra at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Everett Theatre, 2911 Colby Ave. Tickets are available for $15 by calling the Everett Symphony at 425-257-8382 or at the door the night of the concert.

"These singers are on the verge of launching their professional opera careers. I think it's wonderful for the audience to be introduced to the stars of tomorrow, who they'll see in the opera houses of the world."

The Young Artists Program, Miller said, is "a piece of their professional journey. We help them develop their acting skills, their language and diction skills, movement and dance. We think their voice is only one piece of their success."

Singer Andrew Garland said the program's daily work is vital.

"If you're not in a program like this, you have a lot of downtime between gigs," he said. "You don't get that day-to-day experience you need."

Garland spent four years at the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, earning an artist's diploma in opera and a master's degree in vocal performance.

"Most truly great actors, I'm sure, have voice and dance training," he said. "We're never going to do ballet steps onstage, but we need to be able to move like a dancer."

Sometimes singers will come back for another year of apprenticeship, continuing their education in topics from fight choreography to acting. All under age 30, they're considered the "rookies" of opera yet trained professionals.

Most of them have finished a master's degree or conservatory program.

Some of the artists, such as Carolyn Kahl, one of four returning singers this year, have already been seen in a Seattle Opera mainstage production.

In its seven years, the program has "graduated" singers into such distinguished opera houses as Italy's La Scala, where Lawrence Brownlee, who was in the program in 2001, ended up.

Saturday's performers include Garland; Canadian singer Robyn Driedger-Klassen, who holds two music degrees and has performed in Vancouver, B.C., and Banff, Alberta; and Jeremy Alan Kelly, who holds two degrees and has performed with opera companies in Ohio and Kentucky.

Five Young Artists in the program will perform at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 7 at Edmonds Community College. For information, call 425-771-4030.

Diane Wright: 425-745-7815 or dwright@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

E-mail this article

Print this article

Search archive

More snohomish county news headlines...